Martial Era: Starting With The Strongest Talent-Chapter 64: Corpse Collector

Adam recounted everything to the manager.

From the moment he learned about the water lily, he explained, he had rushed straight for the center of the swamp, because that was where such a resource would most likely form. But when he arrived, he wasn’t alone.

Henry was already there.

Henry and his men.

And Henry had been with a gem.

Before Adam could intervene, Henry detonated it.

The explosion was catastrophic.

It killed Henry and his men instantly and reduced the surrounding area to ruins. And more importantly, it was most likely the trigger that pushed the incursion over the edge, forcibly mutating the rift.

The manager listened to the entire account in silence.

But it was that last detail that made her expression change.

"The explosion," she said slowly, "was what caused the rift to mutate?"

Adam nodded.

He understood why she asked, even though he’d already explained it. A rift mutation was not something that was supposed to be initiated by human hands. If that became possible, if it became repeatable, it would spell absolute chaos for the Alliance.

The manager cursed under her breath.

"These clans will be the end of us."

To most people, the tension between the martial clans and the Alliance wasn’t obvious. But Vanessa knew better. The Mission Hall answered to the Alliance, and historically, the two sides had never truly trusted one another.

After a moment, she exhaled slowly, forcing herself to calm down.

Then she turned to Adam, who was still seated.

"Don’t worry, Mr. Adam," she said. "You don’t need to stand watch here any longer. We’ll handle things from this point."

Adam blinked.

Stand watch?

Then he realized the misunderstanding.

"It’s no problem, Manager," he said calmly. "I was about to leave anyway."

He stood, brushing himself off, and walked away from the center. As he passed, he gave a small nod to the Acolytes who had accompanied Vanessa.

They straightened instinctively.

Vanessa watched him go, a trace of admiration slipping into her gaze.

"We need more warriors like that in the Alliance," she said quietly. "But people like him don’t come around often."

She shook her head once, then her expression hardened.

Turning to the Acolytes, she asked,

"Are the others almost here?"

"Yes, Ma’am," one of them replied immediately.

Vanessa nodded.

"Good. I want a full perimeter established around this area. If this turns into a mutant rift breach, we need to be ready."

She began issuing orders at once, her voice sharp and authoritative as the Acolytes moved into action.

****

Adam rubbed the storage ring on his finger as he walked away, his expression calm but his thoughts sharp.

I hope they don’t notice.

What he didn’t want the manager, or anyone else for that matter, to realize was simple.

He had taken corpses.

Not one.

Two.

That was the real reason Vanessa had found him at the center. It wasn’t because he was "standing watch," like she believed.

It was because Adam had deliberately made it look as if Henry’s body was obliterated along with the two corpses.

Before he could leave, however, Vanessa and her group arrived; luckily, he managed to slip away without issue.

Adam was counting on two things in order not to be discovered.

One, everyone would be too focused on the rift to notice his hasty work.

And he was almost certain that would be the case.

And two animosity.

The manager already dislikes the clan heirs, and once they uncover the Acolytes Henry and his men killed and buried... she won’t care what happens to their bodies.

That certainty steadied him and Strengthened the choice he’d made.

As for why he’d taken two corpses, one reason mattered far more than the other.

The first corpse belonged to the man who had blocked his path in front of the arcade the day before. The same man who’d been knocked out earlier that morning by Small Dick.

That corpse carried a D-rank cultivation talent.

And that had been Adam’s problem since the day he awakened, six months of stagnation, limited by a G-rank talent. But now, he finally had a way to change that.

By equipping it.

The second corpse mattered less.

It was an experiment.

Adam wanted to see how long a talent could persist inside a human corpse.

Monsters and humans were different, but Adam believed the mechanics would be the same. After all, he could already use monsters’ special talents without issue. That alone told him the system didn’t discriminate.

Talent is talent, regardless of origin.

With that settled, Adam continued his trek out of the swamp, his pace unhurried.

Back at the center of the swamp, the manager stood before five bodies.

They were the corpses of the Acolytes Henry and his men had killed, and buried.

Her gaze was emotionlessly flat.

Around her, the Acolytes who had arrived with her, as well as those who had rushed in after her orders, stood in heavy silence. No one spoke. No one moved. The swamp itself seemed subdued, as if even the air understood the gravity of the moment.

Adam hadn’t told her.

He didn’t need to.

Vanessa already knew who was responsible.

After a long moment, she finally spoke, her voice low and cold.

"Clan bastards."

These weren’t nameless soldiers. They were people with families. Parents. Children. Lives outside the Mission Hall. And all of that had been erased without hesitation.

The thought made something twist in her chest.

And yet, despite the bitterness, it pleased her that Henry and his men were dead.

What pained her wasn’t their deaths.

It was that she hadn’t been the one to deliver them.

Vanessa shook her head, forcing those thoughts aside. There would be time to grieve later. Time to give these Acolytes a proper farewell.

Right now, they had a bigger problem.

She turned sharply.

"Handle the bodies with care."

The Acolytes moved immediately, their actions gentle and respectful as they prepared the fallen for transport.

In stark contrast, the remains of Henry’s men lay piled off to the side, stacked like discarded cargo, barely given a glance.

Vanessa didn’t look at them.

Instead, she walked toward the group of Acolytes stationed near the rift.

They couldn’t enter since it was still mutating, but modern technology didn’t require physical access to extract information. Even a locked rift could tell a story.

And the most important question was simple:

How fucked were they?

She stopped beside one of the Acolytes holding a reading device.

"Well?" she asked. "What did you find out?"

****

[Authors Note]

Thank you for reading.